City to pay $7.6M to man injured by falling tree

Michael Burke is shown at his Lark Street home, where he contends a queen palm tree the city should have maintained better fell on him during a January 2010 windstorm, crushing his legs. Burke is suing the city of San Diego, claiming that budget cuts slashed funding for tree maintenance.
— Earnie Grafton

Michael Burke is shown at his Lark Street home, where he contends a queen palm tree the city should have maintained better fell on him during a January 2010 windstorm, crushing his legs. Burke is suing the city of San Diego, claiming that budget cuts slashed funding for tree maintenance.
— Earnie Grafton

San Diego  The city of San Diego will have to pay $7.6 million to a Mission Hills man who was paralyzed when a palm tree in the city’s right of way fell over in a winter storm almost three years ago and crushed his legs.

The award was handed down Friday by a San Diego Superior Court jury after about a half day of deliberations in a lawsuit filed by Michael E. Burke and his wife, Edith.

The tree was in the city-controlled right of way on Lark Street in Mission Hills. The same panel had concluded on Monday that the city was liable for the accident.

The money was awarded for Burke’s past medical bills and future medical needs, as well as his loss of earnings in the past and future. Burke is a lawyer. The jury also awarded $3.6 million for noneconomic damages.

His lawyers had argued that the city’s decision in 2007 to cut funding for tree inspection and maintenance led to the accident.

The tree had not been inspected for almost three years, and showed signs it was diseased and dying.

The city contended that the accident was an “act of God” that could not be foreseen.

Burke, who has gone through 14 surgeries and could face amputation of both of his legs, said he hopes the jury award sends a message to the city.

“I sincerely hope this will bring about a restoration of tree trimming and inspections in San Diego and Mission Hills,” he said from his wheelchair in the hallway outside the courtroom. “And hopefully prevent this from happening to anybody else. So nobody else has to go through what my family and I had to go through.”

The city could appeal the case, both the finding that it was responsible for the tree falling and the damages award.

“Our office will confer with the lawyers who handled the trial for the city, as well as the city council and the city’s insurer, as to the next step,” said Jonathan Heller, a spokesman for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. “The case is far from over at this point.”

The tree that crushed Burke was not the first to go down in Lark Street that day, according to testimony at the trial. Around 6:30 a.m., another queen palm tree fell, crushing Burke’s car.

Burke was struck two hours later when he was getting work materials out of the trunk of his crumpled car. At the trial, his lawyers said the tree was not only diseased and dying but that the city did a poor job of handling the situation after the first tree fell.

A police officer strung yellow caution tape near the car but not fully around it. The city’s arborist also went to the street when residents reported the first tree had fallen and took a picture of the palm atop Burke’s car. No one checked other trees or took other steps to secure the area.

Jury foreman Myron Frame said that is where blame with the city should lay.

“The city should have over-protected that area with barricades and better tape,” Frame said. “They should have blocked off the whole block.”

Browne Greene, one of Burke’s lawyers, said the money will help Burke pay off massive medical bills and lead a more independent life. They had asked the jury for at least $5 million for his future medical needs, and the jury awarded $2.2 million as well as several million more in noneconomic damages.

After the verdict, he urged the city to look at its tree inspection policy again. “There are thousands of these trees out there,” Greene said, referring to the queen palms planted across the city decades ago. “These are trees that needed more care, not no care. When the city decided in 2007, five years ago, to stop any inspections, they basically invited this kind of thing to happen.”